Dr. Markus Covert is currently the Ram Shriram Chair and Professor of Bioengineering at Stanford University with a background in whole-cell modelling.

In 2012 Professor Covert published the first whole cell model, for the small bacterium, Mycoplasma genitalium, in the Journal Cell. This model combined flux-modelling of the metabolism with differential equation and stochastic models to describe physiological and gene regulatory networks and processes. Prof Covert and his group have continued to work on whole-cell models: in 2020, his group published an expansive model of Escherichia coli.